I am trying to qualify the need for Public Invite-Only Events.
What I mean by this is:
Events that are marketed to the public. But, that require an application of some sort OR require an invitation from 1) the event planner or 2) a small group.
I've hit on the need for this here and Andrew Teman of WorldChamp has talked about it here.
Seth Godin is doing it with his new seminar series. Swingers clubs do it.
Do you see a need for this? Anyone want to pilot a system that manages this?
Pete,
Aren't all conferences and trade shows public, invitation-only events? Especially if you consider the invitation a result of completing registration or paying a fee?
Just curious if you mean some other use case...
Greg
Posted by: Gregory Narain | February 01, 2005 at 02:57 PM
no. It is different. Anyone that can afford a conference can go if they hear about it. You don't need permission from the conference organizer to attend.
To go to a swingers club event, you have to 1) be able to afford it at $100 a couple and 2) receive an invitation from the event planner/coordinator which permits you to come.
What I am talking about is an orkut style event where you must receive an invitation before you are allowed in.
Posted by: peter caputa | February 01, 2005 at 03:05 PM
This is very timely (!) because I've decided to change my Free Agent Boston registration process. Instead of letting anyone attend I'm going to first request that interested participants fill out a short questionaire that "qualifies" them for the event and then they can pay for their registration. (If they've filled out the questionaire before they don't need to fill it out for every event.)
I've been noticing more and more that some people who attend Free Agent Boston events are not free agents or even thinking about becoming one. I'm protective of this group/project and want to make sure that the people who are supposed to be there are ... actually there. For example, the free agent dinner is not the place for sales people who have products they want to sell to free agents (I have another event in the works that wouuld be more appropriate for those people to attend).
What's the next step? (!)
Posted by: Sooz | February 01, 2005 at 03:22 PM
The next step: I need to find more people that want to try this out. Say 10. Then, it'll justify writing a spec. Then, we need to develop it.
If you can help finding more use cases and guineau pigs, we'll make it a priority.
Posted by: peter caputa | February 01, 2005 at 03:39 PM
I blogged about it. Keep me posted. Thanks!
Posted by: Sooz | February 02, 2005 at 10:34 AM